This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As you can read in this preview of Friday night's BYU-Cincinnati game (6 p.m. MDT, ESPN), Cougars quarterback Tanner Mangum is expected to play against the Bearcats (3-2), but his mobility could be limited by the hamstring pull he suffered during last week's 45-38 win over East Carolina.
That means the Cougars' other freshman QB, Beau Hoge, who is 3 1/2 years younger than Mangum, could be pressed into action.
Hoge rarely got reps in practice (less than 10 percent, by most accounts) before this week as the Cougars scurried to get Mangum up to speed after Taysom Hill went down, and it showed in the four series he played against the Pirates. He went 1-for-5 and threw a costly interception.
I wasn't alone in writing extensively last winter about BYU's need to find a junior college quarterback in case a scenario like this one unfolded, but coaches apparently thought they could make it work. We will see.
I talked this week with quarterbacks coach Jason Beck about Hoge's strengths and weaknesses, why BYU recruited a kid who did't play the position until his senior year at a medium-sized high school in Kentucky (Highlands High, in Ft. Morgan, which is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati), and why they are in this predicament in the first place.
"Yeah, Beau got more balance, more 50-50 reps, in practices Monday and Tuesday," Beck said. "We have a couple team periods. So one team period he will be with the offense, and he will get 15 to 20 percent of the reps. And then the other team period, he is with the scout team, so he is seeing a fast defense. Because that is a tough thing as a backup when you are only seeing the scout team defense. It is slow, and it is not a real sharp look. But when you are running the scout team offense, you are seeing our starting defense, and the speed of that. Although the scheme doesn't help, it is good to face that kind of speed. That's the benefit of having him down there. This week, we will have him more with us, and get him going."
Beck said Hoge was "more of a sleeper" coming out of high school because Highlands High had a good quarterback when Hoge was a sophomore and a junior, so he played receiver.
"So he kinda had to be patient at that high school level. He could have transferred early in search of a place to play, but he didn't, so that was interesting," Beck said.
Hoge has relatives in Spanish Fork and Salt Lake City, and showed up at BYU's Junior Day before his senior season telling the coaches that he could play quarterback, although he didn't have much film to show them how.
"We noticed he had a lot of tools. He can throw it, he can run, he is very smart. He did a lot of things really well," Beck said. "So I was really interested in him, and then at that point it was about waiting to see him play. We watched every game he played early in the season [on film], watched for his decision-making, see his thought process, how he played under pressure, how he handled adversity, that kind of stuff. And he did a really great job."
So Beck flew out to Kentucky when the Cougars had a bye to watch Hoge in person. He was impressed by the QB's leadership ability, how he carried himself, and how he interacted with his teammates and coaches.
"At that point, we made the decision to pull the trigger on him [and offer]," Beck said. "And he is a really great fit here, and a really good player. So, we got a really good deal there. I think if he had played quarterback earlier, he would have been much more highly recruited, and we would have had more of a battle on our hands."
Beck said BYU is in this position because Ammon Olsen and Billy Green transferred away knowing they would never play as long as Taysom Hill was healthy. Olsen is now starting for Southern Utah, while Green is sitting the bench for Weber State after getting a chance to do something last year but not succeeding much. Another possibility, former Mountain Crest High star Alex Kuresa, left for Snow College and playing time a few years ago. He is now excelling as a QB at Portland State after being told by BYU, Utah State and Utah coaches that he would have to go back to receiver or defensive back (he was switched to receiver at BYU) if he wanted to play for them.
"Taysom played his sophomore year and had such a great season, then anybody that is that year or older, they tend to leave," Beck said. "It is just the nature of the game, because only one guy gets to play [quarterback] unless something happens injury wise. And nobody thinks that long-term. Everybody assumes that if they are the backup, they will always be the backup. So that's just the nature of the game. And so we just try to protect against that sort of thing best we can."
Beck said when it comes to QBs, BYU coaches now try to recruit guys who really, really want to be at BYU and won't consider jumping ship the first time they realize they won't be the starter.
"You want to ideally want a guy who wants to be here. They are dying to be at BYU, and then they might be a little more patient. That's opposed to if you are really selling the guy on BYU, and it is all about playing early, and if he doesn't play early, then they may take off," he said. "We are in that same boat now, with Tanner having the year he is having, and being a freshman, that is going to be a challenge.
So it is going to be even more important to find guys that are the right fit and who are going to want to be here and can play at this level and will just work hard and compete and be patient."